Short Courses

Current Courses

Previous Courses

March 28-29, 2017

This course focused on a basic 2D geological workflow that shows how to perform volume calculations with no seismic derived geomodel. The course aims to teach students common basic geological operations in Petrel. This includes working with well data, surfaces and simple volume calculation.

Schlumberger NExT Training Course: Petrel Fundamentals

April 10-11, 2017

The Petrel Fundamentals course introduces new users to Petrel functionality with emphasis on visualization, data organization and collaboration.

The course covers basic usage of the application, providing an understanding of how to get started with Petrel. You will learn about Petrel project set-up, data import, visualization, creating simple surfaces and grids and performing basic quality checks. You will also be introduced to the Studio Database and simple tools for retrieving data.

Schlumberger NExT Training Course: Petrel Geology

April 12-14, 2017

This course focuses on a basic 2D geological workflow that teaches how to perform volume calculations with no seismic derived geomodel. The course aims to teach students common basic geological operations in Petrel. This includes working with well data, surfaces and simple volume calculation.

Organic Petrology and Geochemistry

Dr. Thomas Gentzis, April 20-21, 2017

Subject matter included introductions to the portions of both Organic Petrology and Geochemistry relevant to the screening of formations, plays and basins in the exploration for producible hydrocarbons.

Instructor Bio

Thomas obtained his BSc degree in Geology in 1981 from the University of Calgary, Canada, and his MSc degree in 1985 from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He attended the University of Newcastle in Great Britain, where he obtained his PhD in 1991 specializing in organic petrology and minoring in organic geochemistry. His thesis focused on the regional thermal maturity of the Franklinian geosyncline and the Sverdrup Basin in the Canadian Arctic Islands.

Thomas joined the Alberta Research Council (ARC) in Devon, Alberta, in April 1988. He spent 10 years conducting applied research in coal and hydrocarbon processing, trace element geochemistry, thermal maturation studies, and carbon capture and storage (CCS). The research done by the ARC team on CCS in deep coal beds in the mid to late 1990s is considered to be pioneering and is being referenced in numerous peer-reviewed journals. It paved the way for other groups in the USA, Europe, and Australia to follow suit. This was followed by 3 and ½ years at Canada’s National Center for Upgrading Technology (NCUT) in Edmonton, where he conducted research in the areas of heavy oil and bitumen upgrading and catalyst development for fluid catalytic cracking.

In 2001, Thomas joined CDX Canada in Calgary as Senior Scientist. He evaluated the coalbed methane potential in the Alberta Basin and was a key member in the drilling and commercial production of the first horizontal CBM well drilled in the low-permeability Mannville Formation coals at depths over 1300m, with a production rate of over 1.2 million cubic feet/day. This initial success kick-started the drilling and completion of horizontal wells in coal beds in the Alberta Basin. While at CDX, Thomas conducted research on the geomechanical properties of coals, stability and numerical simulation of horizontal multilateral CBM wells, and the effect of drilling fluid additives on coal permeability. He was also an advisor for CDX Gas of Dallas, Texas, on CBM projects in China, India, Mexico, and Turkey.

Thomas moved to Dallas in December 2006 to work for Petron Resources as Vice President of Geology and Petrology, where he helped in the evaluation of a number of unconventional resource prospects in North America, South America (Peru), and Africa (Botswana). He joined Core Laboratories in Houston in July 2009, where he is currently a Geological Advisor and in charge of the organic petrology and geochemistry technical group. He also provides in-house training seminars to Core Lab clients worldwide (USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Australia, and India).

Thomas is a prolific writer and has published 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 3 book chapters/special volumes, is a contributor to AAPG Memoir 102 (published in 2013), and has given numerous presentations - mostly by invitation - at national and international conferences and symposia. He is an accredited member of the International Committee for Coal Science and Organic Petrology (ICCOP) on dispersed organic matter VRo, and currently serves as Vice-President of TSOP (The Society for Organic Petrology). Thomas is an Associate Editor of Marine and Petroleum Geology (2010-Present) and has served in the editorial board of the International Journal of Coal Geology (2008-2013), Energy Sources (2003-2012), and Journal of Sustainable Energy Engineering (2013-2015).